Friday, June 10, 2011

Arizona Lawmakers More Incompetent Than Usual Today

So, (some of) the Arizona Legislature shows up and catches a paycheck today, but no actual work gets done? Why would we want an additional $3 million a week in federal money (at no cost to the state) anyhow? I forgot: it's because people living off their contest winnings like Andy Biggs ("If we really cared about the unemployed ... we would entice jobs here," feel like $240 a week is discouraging people from looking for work. If you don't want the benefits to be extended, have the guts to take a vote and register your dissent. Tell people to find one of these imaginary jobs that are apparently floating around.

Those of you that have come here looking for a report on the special session, here it what I have:

Nothing. Zip. Zilch.

And to honor the breadth of my heritage: Nada. Ni.

Oh, it’s not because I don’t have any information. It’s because despite calling a special session, there was no bill ready to work on. So, aside from honoring the ASU softball team, the legislature had no business before them.

To sum up: not only did the governor not have any votes lined up, she didn’t even have a bill to line up votes for.

This change, which people have been calling for since April involves a single word in state law. Amending “two” to become “three” so that 15,000 Arizonans would be eligible for continued unemployment benefits. Apparently, this was too difficult to accomplish.

By the way, the legislators that were there all collected their per diem.